Baking on a Baking Hot Saturday

Today I was faced with a situation: throw away the mushy bananas that were lying on my kitchen table OR use for them banana bread and suffer with the consequentially hot kitchen.  

I chose to bake the bread.  Because without it, all you’ve got is rotten bananas.

I use this recipe over and over.  It’s from a good friend of mine, the lovely lady behind Balance My Cake.  It’s always tasty, but also pretty healthy.

These are not the bananas I actually used. These are model bananas. Model bananas, like model people, are prettier than the real thing.

Delicious Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

• 1 1/4 c. wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/2 c. chocolate chips
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c. or less brown sugar*
• 1/4 c. or less maple syrup*
• 2 ripe bananas

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a loaf pan.  Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl, the wet ingredients in another.  Add the wet ingredients to the dry, but don’t over-mix — a little lumpiness is good! Bake for 25 minutes, then let cool on a rack for 5 minutes and transfer to a plate. Share only if you’re feeling generous. 

*The original recipe calls for Splenda brown sugar and sugar-free maple syrup, which would cut the calories even more. I usually use regular syrup and brown sugar because that’s what we buy, but I do use less than 1/4 cup of both (plus, the mushier the bananas, the sweeter they are already).  However, I am one of those cooks who NEVER has all the ingredients, so I am constantly making up substitutes in my recipes.  Instead of brown sugar (which I’ve been out of since the last time I made this bread…), I used 1/4 cup regular sugar and a little less than 1/2 tablespoon molasses to make up for it.

I like to put peanut butter (on everything!!) on my banana bread.  Cream cheese or butter is yummy, too, but it’s so moist and delicious that you don’t need anything at all.

While the banana bread was baking, I escaped out of the hot kitchen and onto the back porch to write.  The Boyfriend’s family is in town along with their beagle, Hudson; I kept Jack and his “uncle” busy with peanut butter so I could blog in peace

Ever since coming back from my trip I’m really enjoying spending time outside of our tiny apartment.  We had dinner on the porch last night, in fact.  It’s definitely been a transition from the whirlwind experience of cross country travel to the quieter atmosphere at home.  I say “quiet,” but in truth it’s been a little zany with unpacking and reunions and having guests at the apartment.  Which explains the baking therapy.